Fighters from the Al Shabab terror group have killed at least 19 civilians in a night-time attack in central Somalia, clan chiefs and local officials have said.

"The terrorists massacred innocent civilians who were travelling... last night. We don't have the exact number of victims, but 19 dead bodies have been collected," local clan elder Abdulahi Hared said on Saturday.

"The dead bodies are still being collected, including women and children. They could be more than 20," said Ali Jeyte, the governor of the Hiiraan region where the attack happened.

"This was a horrible attack that has never happened in our region. These were innocent civilians who did nothing to deserve this," added another local clan leader, Mohamed Abdirahman.

The sources said at least eight vehicles were travelling on a road between the towns of Beledweyne and Maxaas when the armed men intercepted and burned them and killed the passengers overnight Friday to Saturday by Afar-Irdood village.

Al Shabab in a statement said they targeted fighters from a local sub-clan that recently helped government forces and that they killed 20 "militiamen and those who were transporting material for them", destroying nine of their vehicles.

The attack comes two weeks after Al Shabab, which has waged a long insurgency against the Somali state, besieged a hotel in the capital Mogadishu for 30 hours, leaving 21 people dead and 117 injured.

'All-out war'

Local fighters and the security forces recaptured several villages from Al Shabab in the region in late August.

Ali Gudlawe, president of Hirshabelle state where the attack took place, released a statement offering condolences to the victims' loved ones and promising to continue "operations to cleanse" the region of Al Shabab.

"The only way we have is to be united to fight and liberate our country from them. I call upon the society not to be discouraged," said his counterpart in Jubaland state, Ahmed Madobe.

The Al Qaeda-linked group has been fighting Somalia's internationally backed federal government since 2007.

It has been driven out of the country's main cities, including Mogadishu in 2011, but remains a serious security threat in large areas of the countryside.

Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, elected in May after a protracted political crisis, promised to wage "an all-out war" to eliminate Al Shabab following the Mogadishu hotel attack.

The bloody siege drew international condemnation from partners including the United States, Britain, Türkiye and the United Nations.

“We are deeply saddened to learn that many people lost their lives and were injured in the terrorist attacks that took place on 2 September in the Hiraan district of Somalia,” said a Turkish Foreign Ministry statement.

The ministry extended condolences to the people of Somalia and its government and wished a speedy recovery to the injured.

Source: agencies

Germany's logistics giant Rhenus, operating in Europe, Asia, and South America, considers Türkiye the heart of various supply chains as the shock of the coronavirus pandemic demonstrated the importance of the logistical availability of factories.

"That's why we've invested heavily in Türkiye over the last two years to ensure that production is stable and reliable so that supply chains can really work," Tobias Bartz, Rhenus' CEO, told Anadolu Agency in an exclusive interview.

The coronavirus pandemic, a global shock that hit health care, trade, finance, education, business, and societies like few other ordeals in the past century, was "extremely worrying," Bartz said, adding that at times, the supply chain "disappeared".

"We saw a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel after months," he said of the virus outbreak, which affected the global economy via regular supply and demand channels.

Following the supply shock that began in China in February 2020, a demand shock took hold as the global economy shut down, exposing vulnerabilities in the production strategies and supply chains of firms across the world.

Bratz emphasized that supply chain "uncertainties" during the pandemic were prompting more businesses to bring manufacturing closer to home.

"I think we can see now that certain factories are closing and opening in different parts of the world. Logistical availability becomes more and more important," he said.

- Shifting global supply chains

The pandemic posed significant challenges for supply chains globally. Multiple national lockdowns temporarily stopped the flow of raw materials and finished goods, disrupting manufacturing as a result.

Many multinational companies increased their plan to move production chains closer to home in order to minimize problems with global supply chains and increased shipping costs.

According to research by Buck Consultants International, more and more European industrial companies are bringing back production that they had previously offshored. Straddling Europe and the Middle East, Türkiye hopes to utilize its strategic location and strong manufacturing base to benefit from changes in the global supply chains.

The country poses a strong alternative to the pre-COVID production network based in Asia as its sole center.

Türkiye offers easy access to 1.3 billion people and a combined market worth $26 trillion in GDP in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, and Central Asia within a four-hour flight radius.

Explaining that Rhenus has been working in the Turkish market for many years through their agencies, Bartz said the company had maintained investments in Türkiye for three years now.

"We see the future in the country not only because it is an exciting production and commercial market in itself, but also because it is at the heart of other supply chains," said the company's CEO.

Pointing to Türkiye's geographical advantage, as well as its highly skilled workforce and strength in product and production, he said Rhenus is "looking at connecting Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia" with that country.

Türkiye has global market access at the nexus of Europe, Asia, and Africa, thus creating an efficient and cost-effective hub to major markets.

The country's strategic location enables easy reach to markets across 16 different time zones, from Tokyo to New York.

Bartz said Turkish people are talented, culturally open, and connected with Europe, and the logistical infrastructure is also good.

"The road supports the structure of the railway. It is something that we benefit a lot from," he said, adding that the company hoped to benefit from the human resource market in Türkiye. "We want to add these people to our global network."

Multinationals are increasingly choosing Türkiye as a preferred hub for manufacturing, exports, as well as management.

Bartz said companies are seeking to spread their risks in Asia and also globally, and in this case, Türkiye and India will be the winners at the highest level.

Rhenus is a family company based in western Germany that has been operating in the logistics industry for more than 100 years.

Bartz added that the company operates in 52 countries and has approximately 40,000 employees, adding that it had reached a turnover of €7 billion ($6.96 billion) in 2021.

AA

NASA on Saturday postponed its latest attempt to launch Artemis I mission to the moon due to a fuel leak, the second time in a week.

"The #Artemis I mission to the Moon has been postponed. Teams attempted to fix an issue related to a leak in the hardware transferring fuel into the rocket, but were unsuccessful," the American space agency said on Twitter on Saturday.

The leak “developed in the supply side of the 8-inch quick disconnect while attempting to transfer fuel to the rocket,” it said.

It is the second time that the agency has postponed the launch at the Kennedy Center in Florida. The first attempt earlier this week was halted due to technical issues and weather conditions.

Artemis I can carry out a 42-day unmanned mission and aims to explore the integration of NASA’s deep space exploration systems involving the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.

The massive 322-foot (98-meter) rocket is the most powerful ever built by NASA and is the only one built to send a payload of over 59,525 pounds (27,000 kilograms) into space.

The Artemis I mission is the first of three space flights in the US space agency's premier space exploration project.

Artemis II and Artemis III will aim to return humans to the moon with the eventual goal of carrying out missions on Mars./aa

Türkiye neutralized at least 90 terrorists in August, a senior official said on Saturday.

At least nine terror attacks were thwarted in the country last month, Deputy Interior Minister Ismail Catakli told reporters in the capital Ankara,

Catakli said 60 terrorists were captured alive, while 14 surrendered to Turkish security forces.

Of the neutralized terrorists, 77 were members of the PKK terror group and 13 belonged to ISIS/Daesh, he added.

Turkish security forces carried out a total of 12,563 domestic operations in rural areas against the PKK terrorist organization, including nine large and 29 mid-scale operations.

In Türkiye's provinces, a total of 858 operations were carried out against the cells and collaborators of all terrorist organizations.

In August, Turkish security forces arrested a total of 310 suspects considered to be linked to terror groups such as the PKK, ISIS/Daesh, leftist terror groups, and the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the group behind the defeated coup of July 15, 2016 in Türkiye.

Security forces destroyed 106 shelters and hideouts used by the PKK, while authorities confiscated 82 weapons and 122 hand grenades, as well as mines and improvised explosive devices, as part of the operations.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the US and EU – has been responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants.

In the defeated 2016 coup orchestrated by FETO and its US-based leader Fetullah Gulen, 251 people were killed and 2,734 injured.

AA

German authorities have started to implement new energy saving measures to prepare for a possible gas shortage in winter.

According to the new measures that came into effect on Thursday, public buildings are now required to turn off non-essential lights and hot water, and limit heating to a maximum 19 degrees Celsius (66 degrees Fahrenheit).

Historical buildings and monuments across the country are no longer illuminated, with the exception of lighting for security purposes, to reduce electricity use.

The Energy Saving Ordinance also introduces restrictions for businesses, obliging them to switch off illuminated advertising between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. (2000-0400GMT).

They are also required to close doors while heating their shops to improve energy efficiency.

The government is hoping to decrease energy consumption by 20% and fill up its gas storage facilities to 95% by Nov. 1 to get ready for potential disruptions to Russian gas imports in winter.

This week, Russia halted gas deliveries to Germany via the Nord Stream pipeline, citing maintenance reasons. German politicians, however, accused Moscow of using gas as a weapon to exert pressure on Berlin.

Germany has around 23 billion cubic meters of gas storage capacity, and currently the total storage level is around 84%, according to Bundesnetzagentur, the country’s energy regulator.

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Six more ships have left Ukrainian ports under the Istanbul grain export deal, the Turkish National Defense Ministry said on Friday.

A ministry statement, which did not disclose either its point of departure or destination, said shipments from Ukrainian ports are continuing as planned.

Türkiye, the UN, Russia, and Ukraine signed an agreement in Istanbul on July 22 to resume grain exports from three Ukrainian Black Sea ports, which paused after the Russia-Ukraine war that began in February.

A Joint Coordination Center with officials from the three countries and the UN has been set up in Istanbul to oversee the shipments.

Since the first vessel sailed under the deal on Aug. 1, more than 65 ships have carried over 1 million tons of agricultural products from Ukraine./aa